Adding another comment to my original. I come back to this show often which is funny because like it has been said at the time this did not do much for me yet today it sure does.....
I love this building for the reason they really cooked here, the floors were slippery with sweat from us ripping it up and the walls were same way. Dripping with gooey slime of dead heads.
This is not the best of all the times I saw the boys play here that would be 5 11 81 and 4 22 ,23 83 those were super. This is however a great GREAT recording which makes this show seem better then the night of. The post drums/rhythm devils is so smoking they are on for sure. I love wheel Other ones. Check out other shows where they combined the 2 they are intense.
I too was in the mind frame of while at this show,it had not lived up to the same feeling and musical intensity as the early part of this tour. Not just the Garden shows but others from early on during the tour. Yet after listening to this so many years later I can look at it from a new perspective. I do remember the long wheel intro. Back then to me it was the highlight along with the Baby blue. Today things are different the sound is outstanding for one.

I read some of the reviews and have a few comments to add to you folks...

I've seen folks here ask: 'Where you there' Yes I was... But, it was odd for me. I was bringing a date, my new girlfriend, so dancing in 'zombieland', as my friend Melissa had named the area backstage where the hardcore, acidsoaked tour heads 'danced' and/or hung out was not on the agenda for me for my first time in over two years (48 shows). Ah, the concessions we men make....

As it turned out, no matter. As things progressed, the show just really blew. The material was just mailed in up until the drums, Let It Grow aside. My date graciously let me go down to the aisles and dance. In a summer full of great LiG's, this version is right up there.

The second set, more awful material pre-drums....ugh! So un-inspired.

Then, the usual happens.

How many awful shows have you seen flip-flop at the drums?

Or conversely, a few great ones go down the drain?

Well here, Jerry and the boys ate their Wheaties (or sumtin) during the drums....

They come out of the drums and a jam ensues....

A rhythm erupts... Aiko in the wings. It's due (They did it the next show in fact). Listen...

Very Rochester 9/2/80 like...

Great stuff. I'd write 'jam' in my cassette, not 'space' There's just no 'space' here.

It's there, Aiko.. Jerry hitting the rhythm, Bob too.. The drummers join in.. About 7:40 it's there and then fades... The Wheel comes on fast and by 8:00, it's locked in....

A very long lead-in ensues. For those of you 'Darkheads', we who grew up in this era saw shows when The Wheel was great, not a perfunctory afterthought. Here, the lead-in reaches nearly FOUR minutes...

Is the best Wheel ever? No, but it's close. (12/5/81 & 11/30/80 are generally considered the best two Wheels).

The beautiful, melodic lead-in flows into another wonderful wheel, but then comes THE moment: the transition.

How I miss those moments.

I'd wished for a Wheel > Too since they'd brought The Wheel back 2 summers earlier, and here we were, getting it, and in a week full of TOO's (3 in 5 shows, including my only Truckin > TOO 2 shows before)
The Wheel ends with a most beautiful and fluid transition ~ one of those where Jerry is playing both at once for a brief instant of beauty before dropping into the next tune.

TOO is good, powerful.. not the best of 1982, but very good still... They almost start Black Peter before Rat. They Berry rockers are great fun, and noteworthy in that Brent does his vocal thing during Johnny B Goode.

Postscript:

I ended up being rewarded for sitting through TOO that night...

26 years of blissful marriage later, that girl is still my wife.

AND, the next year, the Dead came back to New Haven and played a 20 minute Other One (forget what the lists say) on 4/23/83 and I danced through that one :^)

My roommate Alex and I were hitch hiking in Vermont and these people (thanks Kevin) we knew picked us up. We were just headed to Burlington but they took us to this show and back instead :)

We went to this one coming from Groton...several of us went to Portland, Boston and NYC..Great story...five of us standing next in line to get in next to the big escaltor. Friend of mine has his ticket stolen by some little kid..so all five of us along with several other deadheads start chasing this kid. well, he had passed the ticket to someone else and we never caught him. My fried Keith-0 looked pale as a ghost with no ticket. We were like Oh shit....Then out of the blue some older deadhead sells a ticket to my friend for $5. Only in the early 80's...this show is classic early 80's Dead..just outstanding..we were center floor...the whole show smokes!!..

This was to be my second show, but my mom, who came home early from work, put an end to my plan - it would be the last time that happened!

The show does start off a bit sloppy, but comes around nicely. Althea is way above average. The second set is strong, especially the post post drum segment. Baby Blue was always a treat and this one is great!

My first Dead show, and it's no wonder I came back to New Haven for more the following April. The show has some very high energy, and this audience recording definitely captures it.
Like a lot of shows from this era, it's Bobby all the way. Jerry kicks things off with a high voltage, slightly sloppy Alabama, but Bobby puts it into high gear with an excellent Greatest Story. His vocals AND slide guitar on Rooster are indeed hot, and Althea makes for a great surprise. The crowd is just totally into this show, and audibly psyched for every song.
The second set, while not as transcendent as some of the most well known classic Dead shows (like 5/8/77) still kicks all sorts of ass. Remember, songs like Touch of Grey and Throwing Stones were still unrecorded, and quite new, so it really took balls to start a second set with one of them. In between those gems, we get a fantastic Sailor>Saint. I played the show for my brother, a fellow Deadhead and guitar player, and during Jerry's Sailor solo, my brother raised his hands over his head and bowed toward the speakers! Simply awesome.
For me - as a first time Dead concertgoer, and today as a listener - the highlight of the show is still Throwing Stones. Imagine hearing a song for the first time (along with a lot of other people hearing it first), and by the time the song is over, everyone is singing along. Cool as hell.
And we're still not done! The Wheel and Wharf Rat, two of my favorite Dead songs ever, make the cut. Great, great stuff.
Baby Blue makes the end of the night happy and sad at the same time, like so many encores. This was the first time I ever heard this song, and I still like the Dead's version, even though Dylan did it so well on the Live in 1966 solo acoustic version. When Jerry emphasizes "Forget about the dead, they will not follow you," it always brings a smile to my face.
I highly recommend this show.

Yes, that's what I think about when remembering this magic night. This is one of those shows that the recording may never quite do justice to. Ya really had to be "there".
That said, the quality is pretty good and consistent and the second set song selection is a bit different. Not sure if anyone ever asks about "hot" Roosters but if they do, tell them to try this one on for size.

After the MSG shows, I found this show to be boring, but after listening to the discs, I was wrong. This show was good...cm

Must've been the buzz and my youth/inexperience/innocence/ignorance(perhaps), but I had a smokin' Jim-Dandy of time from the 15th row or so, electrified w/ m' buddy and his freaked-out straight girl - transition from Around & Around is a ripper and the Baby Blue was particular sweet if my memory serves me right (50%/50% re; the aforementioned memory). Go for it, download a good ole' fashioned Thursday night Dead show -- do it for Billy Shakespeare